Tips for MSMEs to use cash efficiently, the story of an iconic Indian solar brand, and other top stories of the week
This week, SMBStory also spoke to the founders of The Pant Project, a D2C custom pant brand started in October 2020, when the world preferred to hang out pant-free.
MSMEs and small business entrepreneurs who fail often don’t understand cash flow. They fall short of money to get back into business, thereby hindering the growth and scaling-up opportunities.
Recently, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many entrepreneurs had to face such tough battles. Thus, SMB and MSME entrepreneurs should know and understand some important tips to use their money efficiently and grow the business faster.
SMBStory spoke to industry experts, business coaches, and entrepreneurs, who shared five useful tips to use money efficiently in business and grow faster. Some of them are:
- Cash forecasting
- Managing the cash gap
- Tracking the expenses
- Reduce unnecessary marketing expenses
- Proper financial knowledge
Gautam Solar
Gautam Solar was started by BK Mohanka (an ex-professor at NIT, Patna) in 1993 as a polymer brand. The solar business was incorporated in 1997.
Since then, the founder’s son, Gautam Mohanka, and various other family members joined the company and worked to take it from a company with Rs 1 crore turnover in 2002 to Rs 200 crore turnover in 2020.
Today, the family business manufactures a range of solar products, including panels, pumps, lights, fans, batteries, and more. It primarily deals with small and medium-scale solar installations for homes, farmers, offices, etc.
Various government organisations, corporates, and individual buyers form its customer base, which it services from its four Haridwar-based factories of 250 MW capacity in total.
Other top stories of the week:
The Pant Project
Brothers Dhruv and Udit Toshniwal started The Pant Project when most people (largely their target customers) had become comfortable working from home in their Zoom waist-up dressing.
Udit — the creative brain of the duo — says now that offices are starting to open and people are indulging in revenge travel, they have custom-made cargo pants, chinos, and all-day comfort formal pants.
They launched their D2C custom pant brand in October 2020 when the world preferred to hang out pant-free.
With their D2C custom-made e-tailor platform, the brothers are bringing the convenience of a tailored fit pair of pants with a simple swipe on your phone.
However, the biggest USP for The Pant Project team is the quality of fine fabrics they use.
The young Toshniwals are riding on 46-years of expertise in textiles and garments of Banswara Syntex — a vertically integrated manufacturer of yarn, fabric, and garments — which their grandfather RL Toshniwal set up in 1976 as a small spinning mill in the bamboo forest town of Banswara, Rajasthan.
In the last nine months, The Pant Project has served over 6000 clients and delivered 10,000 pants. They say the high number of repeat customers, over 25-30 percent, has encouraged them as they found the repeat customers were spending over Rs 10,000 of average order value.
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Edited by Suman Singh